UNDP Jobs - 65703- Consultant - End of Term Evaluation of the Democra

Consultant - End of Term Evaluation of the Democracy Consolidation Programme Phase IV

Location :

Lilongwe, MALAWI

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

09-May-2016

Application Deadline :

04-May-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

35 days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

35 days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The overriding context of DCP has been one in which there is a constitutional quest to promote good governance and development. The Malawi Republican Constitution provides a governance framework within which State power is explicitly stated to derive from the people and is exercised by public officials only on trust. Such trust, according to the constitution, can only be maintained through accountable and transparent government and informed democratic choice. In addition, the rule of law and human rights must be upheld. The Constitution guarantees every person not only civil and political rights, but also social and economic rights. Most notably, the Constitution specifically guarantees the right to development which entitles every person to the enjoyment of economic, social, cultural and political development, with women, children and people with disabilities, in particular, being given special consideration in the application of the right. Consequently, DCP IV was designed to contribute to the attainment of good governance at all levels of society as well as enjoyment of human rights, especially the right to development.

Despite the favourable constitutional framework, at the design stage of DCP IV, significant governance challenges were prevalent. For instance levels of accountability and responsiveness by government and other public functionaries remained low while, according to the DCP III Civic Education Follow-up Survey, the various causes of low enjoyment of the right to development affected different social groups disproportionately. For example, the survey showed that knowledge levels on human rights stood at 75.6% for males against 55.6% for females and 86.2% for urban population against 61.8% for rural population; knowledge levels on principles of transparency and accountability stood at 61.9 % for males against 44.1% for females and 71.4% for urban population against 49.6% for rural population; while knowledge levels on children’s rights stood at 88.8% for urban population compared to 62.3% for rural population. Similar disparities existed on proportion of the population that was able to: demand fulfilment of their rights; understand the link between human rights and service delivery such as education, housing, health, water and food; understand procedures for enforcing human rights; etc. These gender and other disparities necessitated that DCP IV should go beyond promoting enjoyment of the right to development, to ensure elimination of the inequalities.

Duties and Responsibilities

The evaluation will be conducted during the period May to June, 2016. The evaluation will assess:

The relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact of the project;
The progress made towards achieving the outcome and outputs and what can be derived in terms of lessons learned for future CO support to the country.
To assess the effectiveness of partnership arrangements between GoM, UNDP, RNE and Irish Aid

The objectives of the evaluation are to:

Assess and analyse the progress made by the programme to date towards achieving the programme outcome, goal and outputs and the sustainability of these results;
Examine and analyse factors which have positively and negatively impacted on achievement of programme outputs and outcome;
Assess the relevance of the outputs to the effective achievement of the outcome and goal;
Assess the relevance of the programme to national priorities;
Assess the effectiveness of institutional arrangements and partnership strategies;
Examine the extent to which vulnerable groups (women, youth, people with disabilities, the elderly etc.) and their interests were integrated into the programme.
Distil lessons for future programming and improvement in planning for the remainder of the programme;
Make recommendations in strategic areas for improving the programme design, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, partnership arrangement, and cross-cutting issues.

Deliverables:

Inception report – within 5 days of the start of the assignment. The report will include a detailed approach and methodology, schedule, draft data collection protocols and an evaluation matrix. Annex 5 gives a template of the evaluation matrix. The work plan should also include an outline of the evaluation report as set out in Annex 2 of these TORs.
Key emerging issues paper – a presentation of preliminary findings to key stakeholders orally and in writing will be made after the data collection and analysis exercise, i.e. within 4 weeks after presentation of the inception report. The purpose of this session is to provide opportunity for initial validation and elaboration of the evaluator’s observations and analysis.
Draft evaluation report – The Evaluator will present a Draft Report within 5 weeks after presentation of the inception report.
Final Evaluation Report. The Evaluator will present a Final Evaluation Report 5 days after receiving feedback and comments on the draft report from key stake holders.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Display cultural, gender, race, and age sensitivity;
Demonstrate integrity by modeling the United Nations values and ethical standards;
Display comfort working in politically sensitive situations.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge of Human Rights Based Approach to Programming;
Knowledge of Results Based Management;
Knowledge of gender mainstreaming;
Strong analytical reporting and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in political science, public administration, Law or other related social sciences.

Experience:

Minimum of 7 years of professional experience in the areas of democratic governance, human rights and Rights Based Approaches to development;
Proven experience in gender mainstreaming or promoting gender equality;
Experience in conducting evaluations for UN agency, government or international aid agency projects on governance, human rights, gender, social or economic empowerment.

Language:

Fluency in English.

Availability:

9 May and 30 June, 2016.

Other Details:

Detailed Procurement notice and Terms of reference can be accessed on the following http://procurement-notices.undp.org/.